Monday, February 28, 2011
106 YEARS YOUNG
Image via Wikipedia R otarians around the world are celebrating Rotary's 106th anniversary with a variety of activities drawing attention to the progress that has been made to eradicate polio and the need to finish the job. (more after the break)
TODAY IN HISTORY
FEBRUARY 28
1953:Scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick discover the double-helix structure of the human genetic molecule deoxyribonucleic acid, better known as DNA, at Cambridge University in England. Along with Maurice Wilkins, Watson and Crick will be awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on nucleic acids.
1933: Four days before his inauguration as president, Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the appointment of Frances Perkins as secretary of labor. Perkins will become the first female member of a presidential Cabinet.
1983: Set in the waning days of the Korean War, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen," the final episode of the sitcom M*A*S*H, airs after 11 seasons. Nearly 106 million American television viewers watch the finale, a record finally surpassed more than a quarter century later by the two most recent Super Bowls.
1933: Four days before his inauguration as president, Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the appointment of Frances Perkins as secretary of labor. Perkins will become the first female member of a presidential Cabinet.
1983: Set in the waning days of the Korean War, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen," the final episode of the sitcom M*A*S*H, airs after 11 seasons. Nearly 106 million American television viewers watch the finale, a record finally surpassed more than a quarter century later by the two most recent Super Bowls.
PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE
Actuel Dogs bills itself as France's first luxury hotel for dogs, and founders Devi and Stan Burun, a dog behavior specialist and lifelong dog-lover, also offer training programs unruly hounds and dog walks in the woods. (more after the break)
Sunday, February 27, 2011
IT'S MORE THAT JUST THE PICTURE
Retrieve EXIF data from photos
I'm sure you've heard the expression. A picture is worth a thousand words. Well with digital photos, each picture is worth an entire novel.
That's because digital pictures carry tons of information. I'm referring to EXIF data. Inside the EXIF data you can find a lot of things about the picture.
For example, you can find when the picture was taken. In some cases you can see where it was taken. You can see the camera used and much more.
JPEGsnoop is a program that's designed to reveal EXIF data in JPEGs. Just open the JPEG in JPEGsnoop. You'll see a long list of information. It details pretty much everything about the photo.
Before you share a digital photo, run it through JPEGsnoop. That way, you can be sure you're not sharing too much. LINK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE
A 26-year-old man was arrested in San Pablo, Calif., in December and accused of stealing a taxi after tricking the driver into momentarily exiting the cab. The man then drove to a Department of Motor Vehicles office, where he attempted to register ownership of the car. [San Francisco Chronicle, 12-28-2010]
TODAY IN HISTORY
FEB 27TH
1844-Dominican Republic gained independence from Haiti.
1933-German Reichstag building in Berlin was destroyed by fire.
1951-The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, limiting the President to two terms.
1973-Members of the American Indian Movement occupied the village of Wounded Knee, S.D.
1991-Kuwait was liberated in the Gulf War.
2003-Fred Rogers, of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, died.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
NOW YOU KNOW
Image by theloushe via FlickrMaker of Foot Measurer Tries to Stop Other Shoe From Dropping—On ItIconic Brannock Device Hangs On By Its Toes Against Foreign-Made Rivals
LIVERPOOL, N.Y.—Many have tried, but no one has ever come up with a more elegantly simple way to measure the human foot than Charles Brannock, inventor of that ubiquitous metal gadget found in shoe stores and known, fittingly, as the Brannock device. (more after the break)
TODAY IN HISTORY
FEB 26TH
1815-Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from exile on the island of Elba.
1870-A 312-ft long pneumatic subway was opened in New York City; funding for a larger version never materialized.
1901-Leaders of the Boxer Uprising in China, Chi-hsui and Hsu Cheng-yu, were beheaded.
1919-Grand Canyon National Park was established.
1935-RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) was first demonstrated by Robert Watson-Watt.
1993-A bomb exploded at the World Trade Center in New York. The blast killed six people and injured more than 1,000.
Friday, February 25, 2011
DO YOU REMEMBER?
Sometimes you’re just not in the mood for a soda. Doesn’t a chilled serving of chocolate milk sound refreshing? Problem is, chocolate milk isn’t something you can just cart around with you unless you have a way to keep it cold, lest it become sour. And there are few beverages as unappetizing as sour milk. Luckily for American consumers, there exists a way to keep a supply of chocolate milk with you for any occasion, without having to worry about its freshness.
Yoo-hoo chocolate drink was the brainchild of Natale Olivieri, a New Jersey man who, in the 1920’s, offered a variety of fruit-flavored beverages that also bore the name “Yoo-hoo.” As legend has it, one day he watched as his wife canned spaghetti sauce and asked her to perform the same preservation process on some new chocolate drinks he had created. The experiment was of limited success, as most of the results ended up souring over time. Undaunted, he continued to experiment with various processes until he found one that allowed the drink to stay fresh, yet required no refrigeration whatsoever until opened. Pleased with his discovery, he began offering his bottled drink to supermarkets.
In the 1950s, the product was successfully marketed in a massive advertising campaign featuring Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and the rest of the N.Y. Yankees baseball team. Yogi could often be seen in the ads, dressed in his uniform and drinking a refreshing Yoo-hoo.
Throughout the years, the product changed hands through a number of owners, including Iroquois Brands, and eventually ended up in the hands of its current owner, Cadbury-Shweppes. A resurgence of popularity emerged in 2000, when Yoo-hoo became a sponsor of the Vans Shoes “Warped” Tour.
A number of additional flavors have emerged over the years, some successful, some not. Strawberry and Banana Yoo-hoo became popular, while vanilla, island coconut, and egg-nog now sadly reside in the beverage graveyard. A light version of Yoo-hoo and a double fudge version are now available as well. Yoo-hoo was originally offered in 8-ounce glass bottles, but they were eventually replaced by 8-ounce boxes. One can still find the 15.5-ounce wide-mouth bottles, however, and the drink does seem to taste better from a glass container.
A properly chilled bottle of Yoo-hoo will slide down your throat almost effortlessly on a hot summer day. And, unlike your typical soda, will even give the kids a little calcium, protein, and a couple of vitamins. It’s certainly not health food by any means, but who says that life can’t be a little fun once in a while? And there is certainly fun to be had in a bottle of Yoo-Hoo.
TODAY IN HISTORY
FEB 25TH
1570-Elizabeth I, queen of England, was excommunicated by Pope Pius V.
1836-Samuel Colt patented the first revolving barrel multishot firearm.
1870-Hiram Revels became the first black United States senator, taking over the term of Jefferson Davis.
1901-J.P. Morgan formed U.S. Steel Corporation, the first billion-dollar corporation in the world.
1948-Communists took control of the government in Czechoslovakia.
1964-Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) became world heavyweight boxing champion for the first time by knocking out Sonny Liston in Miami Beach.
1983-Tennessee Williams, American playwright, died.
1986-President Ferdinand Marcos fled the Philippines; Corazon Aquino took over the office.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
SPACE
NOW YOU KNOW
Image via WikipediaICE SCREAM
Spoon. Pint of ice cream. Tastes great; hurts your head. Badly. Colloquially, the affliction is called an "ice cream headache" or "brain freeze" but it has a medical name too -- sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia -- which, basically, is a scientific way to say "nerve pain" in the area afflicted by the icy goodness.Why does it happen? (more after the break)
TODAY IN HISTORY
FEB 24TH
1582-Pope Gregory XIII issued a papal bull introducing the Gregorian calendar reform.
1803-The Supreme Court ruled in Marbury v. Madison that any act of Congress which conflicts with the Constitution is null and void.
1821
1868-Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the United States, became the first president to have impeachment
proceedings brought against him by the House of Representatives.
1903-The lease for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was signed.
1920-Adolf Hitler outlined the basic points of the Nazi party at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich.
1968-The discovery of a pulsar was announced.
1980-The U.S. hockey team defeated Finland to win the gold medal at the Lake Placid Olympics.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
TODAY IN HISTORY
FEB 23RD
1821-John Keats, English Romantic poet, died.
1836-Mexican general Santa Anna began the siege of the Alamo.
1896-The Tootsie Roll was introduced by Leo Hirshfield.
1942-The first Axis shelling of U.S. soil took place near Santa Barbara, Calif.
1945-U.S. Marines raised the American flag on Iwo Jima.
1997-Scottish scientists announced the successful cloning of a sheep, Dolly.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
SPACE
Explanation: Like a ship plowing through cosmic seas, runaway star Zeta Ophiuchi produces the arcing interstellar bow wave or bow shock seen in this stunning infrared portrait from the WISE spacecraft. In the false-color view, bluish Zeta Oph, a star about 20 times more massive than the Sun, lies near the center of the frame, moving toward the top at 24 kilometers per second. Its strong stellar wind precedes it, compressing and heating the dusty interstellar material and shaping the curved shock front. Around it are clouds of relatively undisturbed material. What set this star in motion? Zeta Oph was likely once a member of a binary star system, its companion star was more massive and hence shorter lived. When the companion exploded as a supernova catastrophically losing mass, Zeta Oph was flung out of the system. About 460 light-years away, Zeta Oph is 65,000 times more luminous than the Sun and would be one of the brighter stars in the sky if it weren't surrounded by obscuring dust. The WISE image spans about 1.5 degrees or 12 light-years at the estimated distance of Zeta Ophiuchi.
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